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Friday, September 30, 2011

Tides Canada and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation sponsored a two-day Aquaculture Innovation Workshop. Farming salmon on land is possible, but is only suitable for niche markets due to the fact its a risky proposition. The workshop was attended by 75 people all involved in salmon farming and supply business, some of the thing discussed there was about the Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS), the system used by Campbell river based salmon farmers use to grow their salmon from eggs to smolts. Read more ...

A new technology created and developed by Dr. Addison Lawrence at the Texas AgriLife Research Mariculture Laboratory at Port Aransas, says the system can produce record setting amount of shrimp. “We’re able to produce jumbo size shrimp, each weighing 1.1 ounces, known as U15 shrimp, which gives us world record production of up to 25 kilograms of shrimp per cubic meter of water using either zero water exchange and/or recirculating water,” he said. Dr Lawrence also believes his indoor system can decrease the countries dependence on foreign shrimp and could even alleviate world hunger. Read more ...

Vietnamese authorities in the Mekong delta provinces of Tien Giang and Ben Tre have ask shrimp farmers to put a hold on breeding of baby shrimp to prevent any incidence of disease. Its believed that any new breeding of shrimp could cause an outbreak of disease. The request to halt breeding of shrimp is to allow them time to clean the breeding tanks out in the hope of preventing disease. Trinh Ngoc Minh, deputy head of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development in Tien Giang, believes that delaying the breeding of a new school of shrimps will slash the chances of any spread of disease. Read more ...

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Portunas, an Icelandic seafood company has purchased a fish processing plant in Vietnam. According to Vietnam News, Portunas is seeking opportunities to help the sustainable development of Vietnam’s fishery. Pálmi Pálmason, CEO of Portunas, said, “Vietnam has an annual output of up to 4 million tons of seafood. The figure can increase if the country applies fishing and processing technologies like Iceland’s.” The are many companies showing interest in Vietnam's seafood and aquaculture industries. Read more ...

The recent legislation for the aquaculture industry in New Zealand that will create a platform for aquaculture to become a NZ$1 billion(€572 million) industry by 2025 will take effect from the October 1, 2011 according to fisheries and aquaculture minister Phil Heatley. "Aquaculture requires only a small fraction of our coastal space, but it has the potential to be a huge boost to our economy," says Mr Heatley. Read more ...

Chilean company BAL Chile SA is farming algae to produce bio fuels for industrial use on the Island of Chiloe announced by the companies CEO Benjamin Gonzalez. BAL Chile SA is linked to a company based in the US, called BioArchitectureLab which is dedicated to releasing macro-algae potential in a cost effective way and sustainably.

“Within the next five years we expect to be producing at commercial scale,” said González. “At present, BAL is developing algae farming on the island of Chiloé and we are looking for alternatives to expand our testing in the north. There has been significant algae productivity improvements and cost reductions”. Read more ...

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

In September 2011, International Aquafeed magazine we will be publishing its first Event Wall Planner for 2012 - featuring all key trade shows and conferences in the aqua feed sector for 2012 The planners actual dimensions: 841 mm x 594 mm).

International Aquafeed 2012 Wallplanner

Over 10,000 copies of the planner will be produced and distributed to our subscribers throughout the world, as well as key industry specialists, and attendees of all listed shows/conferences. There are only 26 advertising spaces (90mm x 90 mm) available in total.

Due to the limited number of spaces available, it is advisable that you make your space reservation as soon as possible.

Special offer:

We are offering all companies that book your space before September 30, an introductory price of UK£400. The standard price thereafter will be UK£600.

Please contact our sales team for more information on our 2012 planner.

In the Scottish Parliament, aquaculture was included in a debate on the reform proposals for the common fisheries policy (CFP). The Cabinet Secretary responsible for fisheries urged the the parliament to support Scottish aquaculture industry with out tying it down with unnecessary regulation. Read more ...

AquaBounty Technologies released its interim results for the six months ended June 30 2011. Ronald Stotish, Chief Executive Officer of AquaBounty, commented: “While the approval process has taken longer than anticipated, we strongly believe that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is moving towards a successful conclusion." Read more ...

Clearwater seafood has rejected the attempted takeover bid from rival Cooke aquaculture as being too low. Clearwater based in Halifax considers the CAN$3.50 (€2.51) per unit as clearly not reflecting what the company is worth. John Risley, president of Clearwater Fine Foods Inc, said last month that the deal would not succeed. Read more ...

In Spain the levels of production in aquaculture fell in 2010 by 9.4 percent in volume to 43,888 tons, also employment declined by 11.7 percent. The economic problems around the world are partly to blame for this decline along with bureaucratic complications according to Apromar a private sector firm association. The EFE, claim that the industry in Spain is suffering from the influx of imports from Asia. Read more ...

The Fish Vet Group (FVG) appointed aquaculture health specialist Bernhard Laxdal as Technical Manager, FVG Norway. He bring to the post of technical manager a lot of experience including running his own aquaculture health and pharmaceutical consultancy Lifsgledi ehf. Part of his job will be to bring an integrated service offering clinical expertise in the use of FVG products as well as sea lice treatment Salmosan. Read more ...

Deaking University is to invest US$5 million (€3.695 million) into the marine and aquaculture sector in Warrnambool. The vice-chancellor, Professor Jane den Hollander during a visit to the city revealed the five year plan. “This is a very substantial investment of our own money,” she told guests at the the Standard-Deakin University business leaders’ luncheon. Read more ...

Monday, September 26, 2011

Alaska with its 33,000 miles of coastline could be the perfect place for mariculture, this could provide jobs and be an economic booster for the remote Alaskan region. The Oceans Alaska Marine Science Center aim to become a state of the arts goto place for mariculture research. It will also be the place for budding farmer to help than develop, and grow a host of organisms like oysters, mussels scallops, seaweed and geoduck clams. Read more ...

A recent trail at a commercial salmon farm in Norway shows that using feed with low levels of marine protein can be productive. The trail was run over 22 months and followed a complete generation of salmon from smolt to harvest. The trail was jointly organised by Marine Harvest and Skretting and was conducted at the Center for Aquaculture Competence. Read more ...

The prices of tra are on the up after a long period of decline, over sized fish that was refused at one time can now be sold, but at lower prices. But even though the prices have increased again, farmers are turning their back on farming, one farmer who lost 300 million dong (US$14391.96), said that he would not go back to fish farming. Read more ...

Friday, September 23, 2011

National Institute of Nutrition and Seafood Research (NIFES), is to carry out a survey and analysis on the levels of environmental toxins and heavy metals in crabs from around the Norwegian Coast. Recent samplings have shown high levels of cadmium, from the County of Nordland. “We are currently gathering samples, and a total of 475 crabs from 48 different positions all along the coast will be brought to the laboratory for analysis,” says NIFES research scientist Sylvia Frantzen. Read more ...

Imagine People feeding fish, worms, algae, shellfish, feeding people, this is known as integrated multi trophic aquaculture, and its a new way of harvesting fish, this is seen as the future of sustainable fishing practices. Mid-coast marine biologists Chris Heinig said "this completed ecosystem of seafood called integrated multi-trophic aquaculture (IMTA) is going to require a fair amount of research, but examples of simpler enhanced RAS systems using worms and fish have been developed in labs, although not used commercially, Heinig added. Read more ...

Mainstream Canada has been accused of not being transparent over its new fishfarm plans, to site a salmon farm on the east side of Meares Island. The Living Ocean Society (LOS) said the aquaculture company has been far from transparent about what constitutes a replacement because of the type and size difference between its present farm and the new one planned. "They're virtually quadrupling production," said Catherine Stewart, salmon farming campaigner for LOS. Read more ...

Debris left by shellfish aquaculture is frustrating local people and other shellfish farmers, on the Island of Denman. Volunteers have been collecting the debris and transporting it to the local dump. Every year the local people have a beach clean up and remove between two to four tons of debris most of which is generated by shellfish aquaculture.

Shelley McKeachie of the Denman Island Marine Stewardship Committee (DIMSC) executive said "It's very, very unacceptable as far as we're concerned, and it's not changing, it's not reducing, we're trying to shine a light on this today. She went on to say "We've just met with DFO (Fisheries and Oceans Canada), who recently took over the regulation of this industry. They're making plans for how to deal with this and other issues around the shellfish industry." Read more ...

Thursday, September 22, 2011

On the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) website they have posted a report on the culling of sea lions and seals carried out by a fish farm. The DFO issued permits to kill 141 California sea lions, 37 seals and two Steller sea lions, there are those that are outraged by this slaughter. Catherine Stewart, with Living Oceans Society, said the numbers worry her. “The fact that they are acknowledging shooting and killing over 140 of them in just the first quarter alone seems to indicate that the problem is not getting better, it’s getting worse,” said Stewart of the California sea lions. “What is the number going to be for the entire year? Why is it so high?” Read more ...

Cleanseas a company with a long history within the seafood industry are now searching for a CEO with experience in commercial aquaculture industry. As part of his job the new CEO will be responsible for developing business to its full potential and driving the development of the Bluefin Tuna research program. Read more ...

The government in Bermuda is looking to coastal fish farming to create new jobs, this movement towards a coastal fish farm is seen as a first step towards a switch from hunting to farming in the fishing industry. Fred Ming, director of environmental protection, said there was an opportunity to develop a new job-creating industry in Bermuda. He believes aquaculture which includes the farming of fish and other seafood in open-ocean enclosures has potential to become big business in Bermuda. Read more ...

The Global Alliance has agreed a service agreement with SGS an independent contractor who will perform facilities inspections and certification audits for aquaculture farms, hatcheries, processing plants and feed mills that apply for BAP certification. "We are very pleased to work with an auditing organisation with such worldwide capacity and capabilities as SGS," BAP Executive Director Jim Heerin said, "particularly as the Global Aquaculture Alliance is preparing to announce the completion of new standards." Read more ...

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

A team of three aquaculture health specialists has been appointed by the Fish Vet Group (FVG) at its head office in Portland, Maine. Their appointment is to provide aquaculture health services to producers of farmed fish, shellfish and crustaceans across the Americas. The team is Kasha Cox, Hernan Pizarro and Jason Collins. Read more ...

The National Directorate of Aquatic Resources (Dinara) Uruguay is working with Brazil to promote the development of aquaculture, at present both Brazil and Uruguay are working in cooperation on aquaculture projects. Some of the projects like the river dams in Brazil at Mato Grosso do Sul have been successful and they are looking to do similar river projects in Uruguayan territory. Read more ...

The total catfish feed that was delivered in the US during August was up eight percent from last year. according to the figures from the US department of agriculture report. Total catfish feed delivered in the United States during August 2011 was 100,492 tons, up eight per cent from August 2010, and up 16 per cent from the previous month. Read more ...

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Pamela Parker Executive Director of the Atlantic Canada Fish Farmers Association speaking at the International Sea Lice Seminar at AquaNor gave an update on the condition and progress in Canada of the sea lice problem, she started by explaining how different the problems were from one coast to the other. She also spoke about SLICE being the only way available in Canada to fight sea lice, and said "For Canadian salmon producers, this isn't good enough," said Ms Parker. "Whilst SLICE is still effective, in the long run we want more options available for producers." Read more ...

The New Zealand King Salmon Company has shown that by reducing animal protein in the diet of salmon, it has given remarkable results. The company gave diets containing only eight percent fishmeal, growth in all trails achieved great results, with fish doubling in size from 800g to 1600g. “We wanted the trial to show whether we could use Skretting diets formulated with the MicroBalance concept to have lower fishmeal levels in order to manage diet cost in the face of rising marine protein prices,” said Mark Preece, general manager of aquaculture at the company. “Also, we are always keen to enhance the sustainability of our farming operations which is important to us as responsible fish farmers as it is increasingly to our customers.” Read more ...

In the aftermath of hurricane Irene the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), agriculture disaster aid is helping farmers to deal with the massive losses they have had to endure. However one group the shellfish farmers, are not entitled to any help under the USDA agriculture disaster aid. Joe Courtney a Republican said "These guys are really not in a good place, they don't qualify for anything under USDA because they're not defined as agriculture." Courtney has said he is worried nothing can be done, this inaction could have serious repercussions for an industry that Generates US$30 million (€21.947 million) and employs 300 people Statewide. Read more ...

In Queensland a team of government scientist have developed a method of preserving seafood in the fridge for longer. The research team from Coopers Plains has identified a number of native plants that has antibacterial qualities and they claim enhances the flavour of seafood. Steve Slattery a state government food scientist said "We have the technology now to double the normal shelf life of seafood products, and in fact store refrigerated seafood for up to 14 days". Read more ...

The Director of Sernapesca Juan Luis Ansoleaga, well on a tour of the norther part of Chile believe there is a good outlook and prospects in Northern Chile for aquaculture to develop. Well visiting Sernapesca offices and meeting with staff members he also visited the University of Antofagasta, where he saw a project involving the Dorado (dolphinfish) that is in development there. Read more ...

Monday, September 19, 2011

Salmon farmers from British Colombia's Campbell river gets ready for aquaculture awareness week, September 19 to 23. The idea is to make local residence aware of the importance of aquaculture to the local community. Mary Ellen Walling Executive director of the BC Salmon Farmers Association (BCSFA) said "Our farmers are proud of the contribution we make to coastal communities and it's important to them that people understand what we do and how important it is that we do it well". Read more ...

In a benchmark report on communication over environmental, corporate and social responsibility (CSR) Cermaq was ranked number one among the top salmonids farming and feed producing companies worldwide. They are also recognised for their pro-activeness, the benchmark report published by Seafood Intelligence aims to assess the quality and quantity of CSR information. Read more ...

The aquaculture industry and conservation groups are hoping that they will be able to identify where these mysterious salmon have originated from that were caught at the fish ladder on the Magaguadavic River. Jonathon Carr director of research and environment with the Atlantic Salmon Federation believes that a possible escape occurred and was not reported from one of the floating pens at Passamaquoddy Bay. Read more ...

Recently the National Fisheries Institute released their annual report of the top ten seafood products consumed in the US during 2010. To say that the results were surprising is an understatement, as was in 2009 Shrimp took the top position, closely followed by canned Tuna and Salmon, but the real surprise was that Tilapia was number four having pushed Alaskan Pollock out of the forth spot. Still one of the key issues is sustainability, and the tilapia ranges from good to bad Green and yellow labeled tilapia are good and sustainable but red is not. The ranking by colour Green for sustainable, yellow for a good alternative, or red which means its not sustainable. Read more ...

Aquaculture research agencies and the Queensland University of Technology have worked together and developed a strain of prawn that grows 25 percent faster than any other cultured strains. This giant freshwater prawn may well be an answer to the Asian market and aquaculture industry. Professor Peter Mather said that by shortening the production cycle of this species will give the farmers more money. He went on to say “However, with population growth in these countries and disruption of fish migratory patterns because of large-scale hydroelectric projects and other developments, wild fish stocks are being depleted rapidly.” Read more ...

Spanish know how is coming to the Philippines along with other European firms dedicated to agriculture and aquaculture. The best of theses firms will be attending the AgriLink, FoodLink, AquaLink at the International Trade Exhibition from October 6 to 8 at the World Trade Center Manila. Read more ...

Friday, September 16, 2011

This publication is a key text in modern aquaculture today. It deals with the parasitic

pest Sea Lice, which can be extremely dangerous to modern aquaculture. Pathogens of Wild and Farmed Fish: Sea Lice, was written and edited in 1993 by Geoffrey A Boxshall and Danielle Defaye.

Sea Lice are a serious problem for commercial salmon farming throughout the world and also for the smaller scale coastal fish farms. Sea Lice are parasitic copepods that infest the external surface of marine and brackish water fish. They belong to the family Caligidae, to which there are over 400 species.

With the ever-increasing growth of fish farming, controlling Sea Lice has become the key to the success or failure of fish farms, as an infestation can often destroy a farms future. Read more ...

This blog is written by Martin Little, The Aquaculturists, published and supported by the International

Singapore and Indonesian fish farmers signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Thursday, to jointly build a US$4 million (€2.9 million) processing plant in Indonesia and will work with farmers to import seafood and vegetables into Singapore. This will boost the food security of the region if the Singapore Marine Aquaculture Co-operative's (SMAC) plans come to fruition. Read more ...

UAE based Asmak , has signed a deal with Jordon to supply over 2,000 tonnes of seafood products per annum to Military Consumer Establishment (MCE), Jordan. In the two year deal worth US$9 million (€6.524 million) in export value, MCE will sell the product through its network of 90 retail outlets. During the signing ceremony, Hamad Abdulla Al Shamsi said: "Our agreement with MCE Jordan marks a milestone in fisheries exports for the UAE. I thank our new partners in Jordan and the Asmak team for successfully concluding the negotiations for this landmark deal." Read more ...

Many aquaculture farm established in the poorer regions of Asia are family run and small, in the last few years there has been an interest in certification schemes that addresses issues like environment, food safety and quality as well as animal welfare and health. This is one of the reasons that the FAO and Thai Department of Fisheries have conducted a joint project on Certification for Small Scale Aquaculture in Thailand. Read more ...

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